Pink Floyd’s co-founder, Roger Waters, has been accused of repeated antisemitism, with claims he referred to “Jew food” and made up a song about his agent that called him a “fucking Jew”.
An investigation into Waters by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) interviewed those who worked alongside him, who made allegations of repeated derogatory references to Jews.
The CAA has also published emails from Waters where he proposed that an inflatable pig floating above his concerts should be scrawled with an antisemitic slogan. In the emails from 2010 he also suggested “bombing” audiences with confetti in the shape of swastikas, stars of David, dollar signs and other symbols.
Waters appeared on stage in Berlin wearing an outfit that closely resembled a Nazi uniform in May. Performing as the character Pink from the rock opera The Wall, he wore a black leather trenchcoat with a red armband bearing two crossed hammers instead of a swastika.
Waters has always insisted he is not an antisemite and said the performance was “quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms”.
In the same tour, Waters appeared to compare the killing of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, to the killing of Anne Frank by projecting the two side by side.
Norbert Stachel, Waters’ former saxophonist, alleged several instances where he said Waters displayed anti-Jewish sentiment. He claimed Waters lost his temper on tour in Lebanon after a succession of vegetarian dishes were produced at a restaurant and demanded that waiters “take away the Jew food”.
Stachel also alleged Waters mocked his grandmother who was murdered in the Holocaust, and that a colleague warned him not to react to any comments about Jews if he wanted to keep his job.
The allegations were made in an online documentary by the CAA presented by the veteran Panorama journalist John Ware.
The music producer Bob Ezrin claimed that when he was in England in the 1970s producing the album The Wall, Waters invented a ditty about the band’s agent Bryan Morrison. Ezrin said: “I can’t remember the exact circumstance, but something like you know … the last line of the couplet was ‘cos Morry is a fucking Jew’.”
He added: “Do I think he considers himself to be an antisemite? I’ll bet you dollars for doughnuts he does not and he will be the first person to say: ‘I’m not anti anything, I am in favour of everyone.’
“But as a person with a powerful public platform he has a responsibility to understand that what he does affects other people and so he may not be one but he walks like one, he quacks like one, he swims like one so from my point of view he’s functionally a duck.”
Waters is due to play at the London Palladium on 8 and 9 October. The venue was contacted for comment.
The CAA said it put its findings to the musician but he did not respond. The Guardian has also contacted his representatives for comment.
Responding to previous allegations of antisemitism, Waters said: “I have spent my entire life speaking out against authoritarianism and oppression wherever I see it.
“When I was a child after the war, the name of Anne Frank was often spoken in our house, she became a permanent reminder of what happens when fascism is left unchecked. My parents fought the Nazis in World War II, with my father paying the ultimate price.”
